Car Sales Report: May 2018

The months of April and May have seen new launches from almost every car manufacturer. These new products seem to be driving sales despite the increase in fuel costs

The automotive industry has seen a lot of action in the last two months. Apart from the addition of new variants like the AMT version of the Maruti Suzuki Vitara Brezza and the Tata Nexon, there have been a considerable number of new launches too. Honda brought in the new generation Amaze, Toyota finally entered the C-segment sedan space with the Yaris and Ford brought in the new Freestyle. Mahindra didn’t fall behind either and brought in the face-lifted XUV5OO. These new offerings have played their part in pushing sales for the month of May 2018. Let’s take a look at how each of the manufacturers has performed.

Maruti Suzuki

May 2018 was a good month for Maruti Suzuki as the company registered an overall growth of 26 percent in comparison with the same month last year. Domestic sales grew by 24.9 percent while exports went up by an impressive 48.1 percent. Driving the growth for Maruti Suzuki were the Celerio, Ignis, Baleno, and DZire. The recently launched Swift hatchback also registered good sales numbers. Earlier in May, Maruti Suzuki brought in the AMT version of the Vitara Brezza. This move is also likely to help the manufacturer improve sales in June.

Tata

Maruti Suzuki wasn’t the only manufacturer to bring in an AMT iteration of its compact SUV. Tata also introduced the Nexon AMT – in both, petrol as well as diesel variants. The Sanand-based carmaker claims that the car has received a good response and is witnessing good traction in the market. Aside from the new addition to the product portfolio, the company has had a rather fruitful month. With sales of over 17,489 units, Tata Motors has managed a considerable growth over the 10,855 units in the same month last year. Exports, however, seem to have slowed down marginally. Tata shipped out 3,699 units in May 2018 as opposed to 3,900 units in the corresponding month last year.

Toyota

With total sales of 13,113 units in the month of May 2018, Toyota has recorded a growth of 20 percent. The company further exported 827 units of the Etios this month, increasing the overall sales to 13,940 units. In the same month last year, domestic sales stood at 10,914 units. Earlier this month, Toyota commenced deliveries of their newly launched Yaris sedan. To meet customer demands, the Japanese carmaker would have dispatched more than 4,000 units of the Yaris to dealerships across the country towards the end of May.

Mahindra

Although they did manage to register a small growth, it hasn’t been a great month for Mahindra. The company managed to sell 20,715 units in May 2018 – up by just 2 percent from last year. There has been a marginal drop in the sales number of utility vehicles – car and vans, however, have shown a considerable improvement.

Ford

Ford has successfully managed to sell 9,069 units in the domestic market in the month of May in comparison to 6,742 units in the same month last year. Exports, however, were considerably higher with 17,119 units shipped out in May. The company had exported 16,761 units in May 2017. Apart from the launch of the Freestyle in April, Ford has recently introduced the EcoSport S with the 1.0-litre EcoBoost motor as well as the new 1.5-litre diesel. The EcoSport S has been priced at Rs 11.37 lakh for the petrol and Rs 11.89 lakh for the diesel trim. All prices ex-showroom Delhi.